SPECIALIZED TRANSPORTATION ANDJOBBER EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS

Join other attendees at our many
networking events, including Tankers and
Tacos, held just steps away from the
tanker exhibits! This event is your chance
to get together with one another and
mingle over a beer and tacos!

2018

Showcase
Sponsor
www.petroshow.com

there will be no e Trucks on the
road,” Nielsen said. “We have the
responsibility to give our customers
support on the infrastructure side.”
For terminals and ports, that means
consulting services.

There are other key questions tobe answered along the way. “How canwe improve the range? How can weimprove the payload? How can weimprove the energy consumption,”Nielsen says. No announcementwas made about current payloadcapacities. “We have much to learn,Daum describes it as an“evolutionary, not a revolutionary”process.

But expect more electrification
rather than hybridization from
Daimler.

“I’m not a big fan of hybrid,”Daum said. “For me, a hybrid givesyou the worst of both worlds.” Suchvehicles still include the challengesof emissions systems for combustionengines and the new technologiesneeded for electrification. “It’s good“It’s an exciting moment to behere,” Daum said.

(Daimler continued from page 15) Blackmer celebrates 115

years in business

Blackmer is celebreating its

115-year anniversary this year.

Based in Grand Rapids, Mich.,
Blackmer is “a global leader” in
positive displacement, regenerative
turbine and centrifugal pump,
and reciprocating compressor
technologies, the company said in a
press release.

Blackmer as a product brand within
PSG, a Dover company.

“Through our 115-year history,
Blackmer has made a commitment
to providing unparalleled product
performance, superior service and
support, innovation and a commitment
to customer satisfaction,” said Bob
Lauson, Blackmer general manager.

“It is this commitment that has
made Blackmer one of the market
leaders in our industry. Celebrating

115 years in business is a testamentto the dedication shown by both ouremployees and channel partners.”Blackmer was founded 1899when Robert Blackmer developedan efficient alternative to the rotarygear pumps that were a prevalentpumping technology at the time.Blackmer’s invention would becomethe predecessor to today’s slidingvane pumps.

In 1903, Blackmer founded
the Blackmer Pump, Power and
Manufacturing Co. in Petoskey, Mich.,
where it remained until 1925 when it
relocated to Grand Rapids, Mich.

Further information may be
obtained by visiting blackmer.com or
psgdover.com.

Driver pay surging, data show

Per-mile company driver paysurged in the first quarter of this yearcompared to the same quarter a yearago, according to data from NationalTransportation Institute (NTI).Some fleets, mostly midsize to largecarriers, pressed driver pay aheadby a range of seven to 11 cents a milecompared to 2017’s first three months.

“That’s a staggering amount,” saidNTI President Gordon Klemp, who’stracked driver pay changes since 1994.“These are very aggressive moves.”Klemp said 6. 25 percent of fleetstracked by NTI instituted pay boostsin the seven to 1-cent range. Another43.75 percent of fleets surveyed byKlemp boosted driver pay in the four tosix-cent range, also historically stronggains, Klemp said. The remaining 50percent of carriers in Klemp’s data setraised by one to three cents per mile.

The wage increases were part of
industrywide efforts to retain and
recruit drivers, Klemp said. NTI saw
almost no increase from the year prior
in 2017’s first quarter. Pay moves didn’t
begin until last spring and summer,
and this cycle of driver wage hikes was
shorter than most, according to Klemp.

Fleets are now at the end of about
an eight-month cycle of pay increases,
he said. In that time, 81 percent of
the fleets he has studied have raised
company driver pay.

“That’s also very high,” he said.
“It tells us this pay cycle is going to
end pretty quickly. There aren’t
many fleets left who haven’t moved.